UGANDA: IRIN Special Report on the ADF rebellion [19991208]

UGANDA: IRIN Special Report on the ADF rebellion

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views
of the UN]

BUNDIBUGYO, 8 December (IRIN) - A "rebellion without
a cause". This is the description most often attributed
to rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) who
have been sowing terror and destruction in western
Uganda for the last three years.

Normal activity in this fertile part of the country
has been abruptly halted, as crops go untended in the
fields and tens of thousands of people are forced to
flee their homes to find shelter in the sprawling displaced
people's camps surrounding the town of Bundibugyo.
The unlucky ones are killed or abducted. Tourism in
this beautiful part of the world is long dead. Trapped
between the mountains and the vast Ituri forest extending
well into Congo, Bundibugyo is tucked away in a remote
part of Uganda at the foot of the Rwenzori mountain
range close to the Congolese border. Its lifeline is
a tortuous, twisting dirt road from the nearest town
of Fort Portal - practically impassable when it rains,
which it does frequently.

This spectacular road, overlooked by towering peaks
and craggy hills, clings to the side of the mountains
before plunging down into the Rift Valley. It is also
one of the main areas of activity of the shadowy ADF
rebels. Trucks from the World Food Programme (WFP),
which has a very high profile here, are always escorted
by the Ugandan army, including a 'Black Mamba' armoured
personnel carrier. Each day, a public convoy also makes
the journey under military escort. The relatively short
distance takes three hours, and vehicles and people
use the road at their peril.

The Rebellion

The ADF, which decided to adopt Islam as its ideology,
was born from a core group of puritanical Moslems from
the Tabliq sect whose members portray themselves as
"Moslem evangelists". In Uganda, the Tabliqs
claimed Moslems were being marginalised by the government.
Together with the obscure and largely defunct National
Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU), the Tabliqs
moved to western Uganda to start the rebellion under
the ADF umbrella. They set up rear bases in neighbouring
Congo where they began recruiting and training fighters
with the promise of money and education. It was easier
to recruit in Congo where the people were not hostile
to the ADF.

The ADF has few links with western Uganda - its leaders
come from areas in central Uganda with strong Islamic
ties such as Iganga, Masaka and Kampala itself. A
former Catholic, Jamil Mukulu, is said to be the driving
force of the ADF. The group also includes some ex-commanders
of former president Idi Amin's army.

Military sources told IRIN there were three main reasons
why the rebels adopted western Uganda as their theatre
of operations: the mountainous terrain, the proximity
to Congo and the ability to exploit an existing ethnic
conflict in the area. They coerced some local people
to help them, especially the Bakonjo people with their
extensive knowledge of the mountains. Using leaflets
and a mobile radio in Congo (now dismantled), they
tried to turn the population against the government
by propaganda attacks against its policies. One such
statement in 1998, signed by the ADF "chairman"
Frank Kithasamba, warned that the group would "crack
down" on those responsible for the deaths of its
members and urged local people "to be on the lookout
for politicians who kill and intimidate opponents and
voters for their own interests".

There is little evidence of the ADF's Islamic claims.
"They attack indiscriminately, just to kill,"
said David Magado Katesigwa, the assistant Resident
District Commissioner (RDC) for Bundibugyo district.
"They hit soft targets, such as the IDPs [internally
displaced people]". Government workers and humanitarian
officials alike are unable to explain the ADF's continued
senseless killing, other than that the rebels are now
on the run with nowhere to go. "They carry out
revenge attacks because the local people refuse to
support them," Katesigwa told IRIN.

The ADF problem exploded in 1997. Prior to that there
had been sporadic attacks which did not appear to concern
the government too much. President Yoweri Museveni,
in his book 'Sowing the Mustard Seed' published in
1996, makes no mention of the insurgency in the west.
But in 1997, the ADF launched a surprise attack on
Ugandan soldiers at Mpondwe on the border with Congo
in Kasese district. Attacks and atrocities escalated
the following year with the army apparently unable
to contain them, one of its problems being the lack
of an adequate alpine force.

The army remains tight-lipped about the number of troops
it has in the area, or the strength of the rebels,
but it has been deploying thousands more soldiers to
western Uganda, especially after its recent success
in containing a long-running rebellion in the north
of the country by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
The terrain remains the biggest problem. "We have
to cut their supply lines or they may never be finished,"
one official told IRIN.

Military sources say the operation in the west is bearing
fruit, largely attributed to the rebasing of Chief
of Staff Brigadier James Kazini from the Democratic
Republic of Congo to Kasese. He has conducted a resolute
campaign to flush out the rebels, by placing detachments
along the hilltops where they had their bases. Sources
say that due to the war in DRC and Uganda's collaboration
with Congolese rebel groups in northwest and northeast
DRC, the borders with Sudan and DRC have been secured,
thus depriving the ADF of its supplies. Other measures,
such as posting soldiers at intervals along the Fort
Portal-Bundibugyo road, have also been taken and there
is a noticeable military presence in the whole area.
Self-defence units are undergoing highly visible training
in Bundibugyo town - intended to boost confidence among
civilians.

Forced from their hideouts, the rebels have now spread
out, operating in small, disparate groups of three
or four, in a line from Kasese to Hoima. There is also
evidence they are moving eastwards towards Kampala,
officials told IRIN. The government blames a recent
string of bomb attacks in the capital on the ADF.

UNICEF, which has been studying the conflict, says there
is evidence the rebels have acquired some military
training. Government and humanitarian officials in
the area agree, stressing that while previously the
most common weapons were machetes, knives and a few
guns, now all the rebels are armed with guns. The military
believe Sudan is training and equipping the ADF, in
much the same way as it supported the LRA rebellion
in northern Uganda. Khartoum denies any involvement.
Other officials moot the possibility of arms supplies
from DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila. "This
rebellion was concretised by the war in Congo,"
one official said, pointing out that Rwandan ex-FAR
and Interahamwe militias in Congo are now linking up
with the ADF on Ugandan territory.

The Displacement

Humanitarian workers in the area do not believe the
rebellion is yet under control. If anything, the current
situation is very unstable. "There have been more
attacks," said Joel Kibe of WFP in Bundibugyo.
"Over the last two weeks it's been explosive."
He believes that the army's current aggressive campaign
has made the rebels more confrontational and is afraid
the already huge numbers of displaced people are set
to rise. At night, hundreds of people stream down from
the mountains to seek safety in the town.

Katusiime is a young girl who arrived two days ago at
a camp in the trading centre of Karugutu, high up in
the mountains on the Fort Portal-Bundibugyo road, fleeing
an ADF attack on another camp just outside Bundibugyo.
She had been in the first camp after the ADF came and
slaughtered several people in her village. Now she
was on the move again. "They came to the camp
and threatened people," Katusiime said. "There
were many of them. They killed five people, and some
were injured. They also took away some people alive."

Aid workers point out that the rebels, who mostly attack
at night, are sometimes able to defy the soldiers who
protect the camps. In such instances, it cannot be
ruled out that rebel infiltrators may be hiding within
the camps. Katesingwa, the assistant RDC, explained
that an intensive campaign is underway to sensitise
the people and encourage them to report any strangers
in their midst.

Many of the inhabitants of the Karugutu camp have been
there since the height of the ADF rebellion in 1997,
says Reverend Stephen Kimara, who cares for the IDPs.
The longer they remain there, the more afraid they
are to return. One old man said that when they tried
to return to their village a month ago, the ADF attacked
again. Now, they are too scared to leave the camp.

In Bundibugyo town, the situation of the displaced people
is much more fluid depending on the level of ADF activity,
WFP's Joel Kibe told IRIN. If they feel safe, they
will return to their homes and their farms. But given
the current volatile situation, he expressed concern
that people were unable to access their fields. "People
are now eating their own food and are unable to replace
it - they can't weed and there's no long-term planting."

He stresses that government and military officials are
very cooperative. In a bid to ease the problem, the
people are escorted to their fields by soldiers. But
all around Bundibugyo abandoned cocoa trees and other
lucrative cash crops are turning wild. Kibe says WFP
stopped food distributions in the town itself, as many
of the supplies were turning up in the markets. The
food agency now makes deliveries to areas where the
people feel safe enough to collect it.

Bundibugyo town is ringed by IDP camps. Camps also dot
the road leading to the town. The district as a whole
is coping with some 105,000 displaced people, with
a further 30,000 in Kasese district. Realising the
problem was not going to be shortlived, WFP set up
a permanent presence in Bundibugyo in July 1999. Agencies
such as ICRC, Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) and the
World Harvest Mission are also operational in the district.

The Abductions

The Bundiwelume camp lies just 10 km from the Congolese
border and houses an entire parish of 3,831 people.
Camp chief, David Twesiime, explains the parishioners
fled en masse when the ADF struck earlier this year.
The camp opened in June, but has not been spared continued
rebel atrocities. "They were last sighted here
three weeks ago," he says. "They came and
took away some men and two women." According to
Twesiime, the men were "just killed". The
two women were freed for no apparent reason. "They
said they were told to do domestic chores," Twesiime
added. According to the women's account, their captors
spoke Luganda which indicated they were not from the
area, and they all had guns.

Twesiime says the situation in the camp is now fairly
stable. The more immediate problems are those of food,
medicine, shelter and untreated water. He fears an
outbreak of cholera, saying malaria, chickenpox and
skin diseases are already affecting the camp's population.

In a strategy reminiscent of the Lord's Resistance Army,
the ADF also appears to have a policy of child abductions,
particularly from educational establishments. According
to UN sources, young children are taken and then sent
back into villages and camps to steal food for the
rebels without rousing suspicion. Sometimes the children
are released and, dazed and bewildered, eventually
reunited with their families.

Young adults however are either killed or subjected
to much harsher treatment. A 26 year-old male abductee,
who managed to escape, has a harrowing story. He was
part of a group of over 50 students, taken forcefully
at night from their technical college at Kichwamba,
near Fort Portal, in 1998. The ADF told them they wanted
help in carrying arms and supplies into the mountains,
and then they would be freed. However, once they reached
the mountains the students were tied together. Those
who resisted or tried to escape were immediately shot.
The others were beaten and tortured. For weeks, they
were made to march through the mountainous terrain,
into Congo. They were rarely fed. When they were offered
food, it was a cow crudely slashed with knives and
machetes and shoved briefly in the fire. The rebels
apparently said they did not want to waste their bullets.
The bodies of several of the students were eventually
found in Congo.

The human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch, detailed
the Kichwamba atrocity, noting that the establishment
was attacked by a group of 200-300 rebels who set the
building alight after students locked themselves in
their dormitories. Many of the students burned to death.
HRW said the ADF has repeatedly targeted schools in
attempts to forcibly recruit large numbers of children
and young adults.

The people of Bundiwelume camp believe it will be a
long time before they can return permanently to their
homes. Fear is rife, and these sentiments are echoed
in most camps throughout Bundibugyo district. "The
people have incredibly high expectations of the army,"
said one aid worker. "It's all they have left."

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